


breathe again

by ofhobbitsandwomen (litvirg)



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coda, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:39:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8889373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litvirg/pseuds/ofhobbitsandwomen
Summary: Newt comforts Tina after the events in the subway.





	

It wasn’t until much later in the day that Newt wandered into the kitchen to find Tina sitting at the table, her head in her hands, eyes cast downwards unaware that he’d walked in. 

He’d retreated into his case only a few minutes after getting back to the Goldstein apartment. The wound of losing Jacob too tender to explain, he’d wanted both to give the sisters a moment to themselves and to escape the thoughts zipping around his head about what he could and could not say. So he’d taken the cup of tea Tina brewed and excused himself, setting his case lightly on the ground and let them know he’d be feeding his creatures if they needed him. 

He stood for a while in Frank’s habitat. Wide and empty and cold now that he was gone, Newt had to sit down on a rock for a moment and remind himself that letting him loose early was the right thing to do. 

He tried distracting himself with his creatures, feeding them, grooming them. But his mind kept slipping back, back to the subway with Credence, back to Grindelwald seeping out of Graves, back to Jacob leaving, and his chest felt hollow. 

When he couldn’t pretend to busy himself any longer he made his way with a queasy stomach back up the ladder. 

The door to the bedroom was shut, no light peeking out beneath it. Tina sat off to the side, her eyes shut, head dipped down as her hands wrapped around the back of her neck and she knotted her fingers through her hair. She looked smaller than she’d been the two days he’d known her. Like her loose clothes hung a little too large on her body as she shrunk in on herself. 

A large shaky breath from her and a sniff later, he cleared his throat, scuffling his feet loudly so she’d know she wasn’t alone anymore. 

Her head popped up, looking over at him. 

“How are your creatures?” she asked. Her voice was low and gravely. She cleared it a few times, too aware of how fragile it sounded. 

“Oh,” he said, shuffling over to the chair across from her. He rested his hands on top of it, his fingers dancing nervously across the wood. “Um, good.” He waited a beat before saying anything more. With a glance to the closed bedroom door he began again. “Is Queenie, um. Is she--”

“She’s okay,” Tina said. “She’s tougher than she looks.”

He knew that. Queenie looked soft, but there was a fierceness in her compassion that shone through almost immediately. It was calming, he found, to be around someone like that. A loud beating heart with room for everyone she met to take cover behind her graceful empathy. There were no walls with Queenie and it should have been horrible, an invasion, and instead she used the broken barrier only to slip kindness through where it wasn’t expected. 

“Yes,” he agreed. “And--and you?”

Tina broke her eyes away from him, moving away from the table and busying herself, making another two mugs of cocoa. He watched the simple flick of her wrist as she called the mugs down from the cupboard, the soft worn yellow of them reminding him of days long past. 

“I’m going to be here for whatever Queenie needs,” she said, avoiding the question. Her back was turned and he could see her shoulders slumped as she leaned over the counter, stirring and tinkering with the drinks. The spoon lifted itself out of the mug a moment later, setting itself down gently on the table behind her, the round bit resting on a folded napkin where she sat before. 

Turning back to him, she held one out to him. 

“Thank you,” he said. He set it down on the table, shifting awkwardly over to the chair next to the one where she sat before. She watched him move, waiting until after he pulled the chair out and sat down himself before she sat again. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, breaking the silence. “That you had to say goodbye to Frank sooner than you’d hoped.” 

Newt paused, a wave of amazement passing over him as he stared back at her. She was so unlike Queenie in so many ways and yet a part of him thought that perhaps the kindness and compassion Queenie exuded was taught to her by someone else. Harder and more concealed in Tina, but there, and just as potent all the same. 

“That’s okay,” he said. He tried giving her a small smile. She returned it softly, without it meeting her eyes. He took a cautious breath. 

“Tina…” he started. She looked up at him over the top of her mug. Her eyes were wide and tired and red. He could tell she’d been crying before he’d walked in, well worn out and dried up before he’d left his case, but weary from it all the same. 

He remembered the look on her face in the death cell, watching the potion as Credence sat, small and beaten, before her eyes again. He remembered her voice in the subway, small but full begging him to listen to her, to come down to them, to stop and reign in the chaos he’d let loose. He remembered her watering eyes and haggard breaths when the MACUSA aurors shot him down anyway. 

It hurt to look at her and see it all reflected back in one hollow, bleary gaze. 

He reached his hand out to her, stopping just a few inches before he touched her, unsure if she would want it. 

“Tina,” he said again. “You did...everything you could have done for Credence.”

She shook her head. He watched as her left hand reached up, covering her eyes as her head shook against her fingers. 

“He was listening to me,” she whispered. “He was calming down. If I hadn’t taken so long, if I’d gotten there sooner, Credence might--” 

Her hand felt cold under his when he finally reached out and took it. 

“You helped him Tina,” he said. “You showed him there were people ready to care for him. To care about him.” She didn’t look up from her hand. “He remembered you, he remembered your kindness.You did so much good for him--more than anyone else had for him.” 

Tina’s shoulders shook and he could see splotches of red working up her cheeks. She tried to do it quietly but he could hear her sniffling behind her hand. 

“It helps,” he said. “When you’re an outsider. To know even one person cares about you, even for just a moment.” 

His voice sounded small to his own ears as he said it, like it was some secret he wasn’t sure he wanted to tell. But it drifted out, heavy and tender to bring her back up to him, to make her know everything he could see when he looked at her, everything he saw in that subway. 

She lifted her head back up from her hand. Her eyes were glassy and her cheeks were red but she swallowed and nodded at him. He could see it all going back into place. The hard face. The brave face. The one with a tiny little crack you had to really look for to see through, but she didn’t hide the crack away from him that time. It was there, right in front of him. 

He glanced down at their hands, linked tightly, and felt a flush work it’s way up his cheeks. He cleared his throat. 

“Maybe,” he began. She drifted backwards, her hand sliding out of his as he spoke, so he started again. “I mean, perhaps you’d like to come down into the case?” 

His eyes followed her hands back across the table. Her left hand wrapped around her right, her long skinny fingers holding tightly onto each other. His own fingers danced restlessly, tapping the wood of the table beneath them. 

“I was hoping to gather the occamy eggs,” he said. His eyes wandered to the bedroom door where Queenie slept. “For Jacob. For his bakery.” 

It was the only thing he could think to do. The one small kindness he could afford his friend who’d helped him in more ways than he could now ever imagine. Something small and simple he could do for the man who’d brought them all together. After a day of loss after loss, it was the only thing he could think to do to win one. 

Tina grabbed a napkin, wiping her nose. She nodded clearing her throat, meeting his gaze once more. It wasn’t quite the look from before. It was still sad, still exhausted. But there was something else there too. A comfort of some kind, a new kindness ready and waiting. He watched as her eyes flickered to where his hands sat pressed against the table. 

“Yes,” she said softly. “Yes I’d like to help with that.” 

 

**Author's Note:**

> stop by and drop me some more prompts on [tumblr](rooniilwazlib.tumblr.com)


End file.
